Improving The Quality of Elementary Education - in developing countries and India (especially post-RTE); equal learning opportunities for the poor and marginalized; insights gained from processes in India and South Asia. All this adds up to CHANGE - and the material here is meant for those sharing the adventure...

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Continuing to live with these myths is to
deny ourselves the opportunity to succeed, especially for those who need
education the most. The first step is to accept that these notions have indeed
affected our work in trying to bring about better education. Acknowledging this
is not a sign of defeat but of learning.

After
acknowledgement, however, come reflection – and small steps.

Here are some small steps that all of us can take:

Discuss these ‘myths’ and related issues
with as many people as you can. Question and contest them, or support them,
with your experiences, facts and data from your sphere.

If you are in any way connected with
education – as a student, parent, teacher, CRC-BRC, official or resource
person, NGO worker or decision-maker, make one small change every month which
in some way empowers children or teachers or HMs. (Our team, Ignus PAHAL, will
soon be producing a poster presenting a graded list of these small, doable
changes at the school level.)

Talk with as many stakeholders as possible
and within reach (and in the limited time available) about what they would
like. They might suggest things they could do – and a small beginning may be
made to a partnership in bringing about improvement that is gettable. It may be
a better way to help children wash their hands before the mid-day meal, or managing to start the school 10 minutes earlier so that learning time increases, or ensuring used textbooks are circulated better, or working out how you may share your expertise
with children or teachers.

Find something interesting you can share
with children. It may be a news item (e.g. did you know that for some reason,
the MHRD – and some of the other ministries of education in the country – face
a problem with monkeys troubling them?), or an interesting story you’ve read or
know (but no moral tales please!) or a suggestion for something they can try
out (e.g. making a paper plane turn in a predicted direction) or find out (e.g.
why the inner margin of a textbook page is wider than the outer margin – okay,
that is too easy but you get the idea).

Find a way to convert complex educational
ideas into simpler forms so that a person with no background in education or no
access to ‘high’ language may understand it. E.g. ‘non-detention is not the
same as non-evaluation, and that by detaining children we are making them pay
the price for the system’s failure and also supporting the idea that it is fear
which leads to learning’. Can you find a way to make this idea easy to
understand for millions of teachers, parents, SMC members and others? (You can
guess why this statement was selected as the example…)

Use your mobile – call up a teacher, or
text her an idea or send your appreciation. With children, use the stop-watch,
camera and calendar in your phone to do activities. If you know an official and
have a good enough relationship, make him or her uncomfortable by reading out
sections of this article (don’t get into a bitter argument – a gentle,
understanding approach may be more useful!).

Finally, please add to the discussion on these 7 Myths and, perhaps more importantly, to the list of suggestions.

But all these are very small things, you
might say. They can’t achieve much. Well, not if many, many, many of us are
doing them! Perhaps it’s a myth too that only when some large government
programme is in action can change take place. This ignores local ingenuity and
the sheer numbers that can make government efforts look feeble – or boost them
to make them actually succeed. Towards this, your views and ideas may be more
powerful than you imagine. And that’s not a myth!

About Me

Former Educational Quality Advisor to MHRD, Government of India; developed the Quality Framework for the implementation of the Right To Education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, India's EFA programme. Now, Principal Coordinator - Group Ignus, which comprises of IgnusERG (consulting company), Ignus-PAHAL (non-profit) and Ignus-OUTREACH (low cost educational publishing). Work on large-scale systemic change in education, advising state and national governments in Asia, developing appropriate models for vulnerable population groups, and improving the quality of governmental as well as NGO educational programmes. This involves improved curricula, textbooks, teacher training and capacity building at various levels. Also reaching out to teachers and grassroots functionaries making an effort to bring about improvement wherever they are, in whichever way they can.